


MORGOTH (A Conclave Story)

by angelholme



Series: Harry Potter and The Lords Of Time [3]
Category: Anne of Green Gables - L. M. Montgomery, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Daria (Cartoon), Doctor Who (2005), Eureka, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Millennium (TV), Xena: Warrior Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-16
Updated: 2013-10-16
Packaged: 2017-12-29 15:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1006967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelholme/pseuds/angelholme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Tonight I Shall Walk The Earth - And The Stars Themselves Will Hide"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. On The Mouth of Hell (I)

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer**
> 
>  
> 
> Harry Potter (et al) belong to JK Rowling.
> 
> Walter Blythe (et al) belong to Lucy Maud Montgomery.
> 
> Daria Morgendorffer (et al) belong to Glen Eichler.
> 
> Amelia Pond (et al) belong to Stephen Moffat.
> 
> Zoey Carter (et al) belong to Andrew Cosby and Jamie Paglia.
> 
> Jordan Black (et al) belong to Chris Carter.
> 
> Xena and Gabrielle belong to John Schulian and Robert G. Tapert.
> 
> Xander Harris (et al) belong to Joss Whedon.
> 
> There may be other references and characters that I use in the story, but as the plot is currently in flux I can not say for sure who they will be, but in any case I am not claiming any ownership or copyrights.
> 
> If you wish to repost this story elsewhere, you can, but under the following conditions :-
> 
> 1) You must include the disclaimers as they are written now.  
> 2) You can not post it anywhere that charges to read the story.  
> 3) You must credit me as the author.  
> 4) You must tell me where it is posted, so I can keep track of my workds.
> 
>  
> 
> **Notes**
> 
>  
> 
> As you will no doubt have gathered from the sheer volume of character disclaimers, this is a crossover story set in a number of universes. However it is not set in all these universes at once, and the universes are all (to one degree or another) alternate versions of the ones established in their various canons.
> 
> And if all that sounds confusing, that's partly because it is, but don't worry - as you go through the story, you will get the hang of it.
> 
> There are currently plots for the first "series" of stories, however I should give you advance warning that this is kind of a leap for me story-wise, so there is every chance that I won't get past this first story. If that's the case I am truly sorry :)
> 
> This story follows from "Harry Potter and The Conclave" and "A Day In The Life" and is the third story in The Lords Of Time Series.

"You realise that even if something does go wrong, there is going to be very little we can do about this" Harry said as he and Sally walked down the main street in Sunnydale. 

"I know" Sally grinned "If The Turok-Han break free from the High School, they will almost certainly rip us apart before we can scream, let alone start to fight back" Harry stared at her.

"You don't have to sound so happy about it" He said after a minute, making her laugh. 

"I am not exactly sanguine about the thought of being ripped apart, love of my heart, but honestly - how often do you get to watch and actual, literal apocalypse being averted?" 

"I admit it's not something you see very day, but still - I would prefer to watch it from the safety of The Conclave, rather than having to witness it from less than fifty feet away" He looked around "I guess it is pretty close? I mean - the town is deserted"

"From what Alex and Dawn said, everyone who wasn't living at 1630 had left town by now" Sally nodded "The aura of terror surrounding The Seal finally broke through the hypnotic effect of The Hellmouth and scared the crap out of most of the population" She paused "Which, given what's to come, was probably a good thing"

"True" He looked around again, then gestured off to the left "The new high school - yonder"

"Okay" Sally looked around the area, then turned back to her husband "If we watch from the pizza place, it should give us a more or less complete view of the front of the school" She paused "What about the back?"

"Honestly? I think we'll have to let it go" He admitted "The alternative is splitting up, and I'd rather not do that if we are going to be attacked"

"Okay" She nodded "Then lets go"

xoxox

Twenty minutes later, they watched as a giant yellow school bus drew up outside the abandoned high school.

"Here comes the army of light" Sally said quietly, then she grinned "Wow - Alex looks so weird with only one eye" 

"Tell me about it" Harry nodded "And is that.... is that Dawn?" They both stared at the young girl as she filed in to the school with the rest of the potentials and the other members of The Scooby Gang. 

"Were we ever that young?" Sally asked quietly as a stream of teenage girls filed past them. 

"I think we were younger" Harry said with a smile. They watched in silence as the rest of the potentials entered the school, then they both drew their wands. 

"If Alex's calculations are correct, the battle should start in about....." He trailed off, staring in shock at the high school "What the hell is that?" Sally followed his gaze, then bounded to her feet. 

"I don't....." She started, but before she could finish, the wave of energy swept over them, knocking them both off their feet.

"What..... what was that?" Sally asked after a moment, then she slowly sat up, staring out of the window "Harry? Wasn't it light outside before?"

"Yeah" Harry shook his head, trying to clear it "It was more or less noon" He slowly got to his feet, then let out a stream of curses that left Sally staring at him in amazement.

"I didn't know you knew that many swear words, love" She said, looking up from the floor.

"There are around fifty turok-han coming towards us" He said quickly "And the school is burning" Sally stared at him, then bounded to her feet.

"Well frak" She said "Any ideas?" He glanced over his shoulder, then smiled.

"Just one" He span her round, and she saw the small wooden door that would return them to The Conclave.

"Lets go" She took his hand and - as the uber-vamps crashed through the shop front - they stepped out of Sunnydale..... and in to a scene of total and utter chaos.


	2. The End Of The World As We Know It

Merlin walked in to the conference room, and barely noticed when all the other agents got to their feet. 

He walked to the front of the room, then turned and smiled.

"You really don't have to do that, you know" He said "Please - sit down" He waited until they did, then he started to speak.

"Twenty minutes ago - relatively speaking - the time line out of Sunnydale collapsed" He said flatly "Agents Capricorn and Gemini were on assignment, and I will ask them to speak in a moment, but first there are some things that I need to update you on" He stepped to one side and waved his hand "My wife and I have done a complete check of history from that point, and it does not make for good viewing" He paused. 

"History now shows that - on the day that Buffy and her team went to Sunnydale High to close The Hellmouth for good, something went disastrously wrong" 

"The turok-han?" Sally asked, and Merlin nodded.

"Buffy, Willow, Kennedy, Rupert Giles, Andrew, Robin Wood, Faith and Anya were all killed" He continued "Along with about six or seven of the potentials"

"Good god" Dawn said quietly. 

"I'm afraid it's worse than you think" Morgana said, walking to stand beside her husband "Instead of being buried beneath the ruin of The Hellmouth, the army of turok-han all broke free" She sighed "Our best estimates are ninety to ninety five percent of the uber-vampires came to the surface" 

"Bloody hell" Alex stared at her in disbelief "Buffy said she saw thousands - maybe millions of them" 

"She wasn't wrong" Morgana continued "Willow was in the process of turning all the potentials in to Slayers, but was interrupted by whatever changed history. They were given some of the power, but the transfer wasn't complete" 

"Oh no......" Dawn started, then trailed off. 

"I see you have some idea of what happened" Merlin said kindly. 

"If they escaped the tunnels - if they managed to get out of the school before it fell - then they would have run in to the army of vampires" Dawn said "If they were slightly amped up on Slayer Strength, then they would have made superbly strong vampires" Morgana nodded.

"The twenty seven remaining potentials were all turned and - as Dawn says - became more or less super vamps" She said sadly "And along with the uber-vamps, they went on a rampage"

xoxox

Angel stared out of his window into the dark night outside. 

He knew what was coming - the reports had been growing steadily darker every day - every since he had got word that Sunnydale had been overrun, and that Buffy's mission to prevent Armageddon had failed. 

"ANGEL!" Winifred Burkle crashed in to the office, flinging both doors open in her haste.

"What?" He jumped to his feet.

"They're here" As she spoke, a siren ripped through the building, blaring louder than anything he had ever heard. 

"Are Wes and Gunn ready?" He asked. 

"Wesley is searching through ancient texts to try to find a spell, and Gunn has made sure everyone is armed" Fred replied quickly "Literally - there is no one in the building who doesn't have a stake or holy water or a flame thrower" 

"Good, good" Angel nodded "Fred - I want you to leave" 

"No" She replied.

"Fred - we are probably all going to die here - I want you to leave"

"NO!" She repeated, then walked over and slapped him "Do you really think I would be able to live with myself if I left you all here to die" 

"FRED!"

"ANGEL!" She shouted back. They stared at each other for a few minutes, then Angel sighed.

"At least get a flame thrower" He conceded, and she smiled.

"I am going back to my lab - Knox and I have a few ideas about weapons of mass vampire destruction" She paused "You should probably not come up there once the fight starts"

"I will take that under advisement" He smiled "Now go - do good things"

"Yes, boss" She stood up on tip toes and kissed his cheek "Take care, and I'll see you later" He kissed her back.

"We'll meet up with Wesley for tea and scones" He said with a grin, then she turned and bolted out of the room "HARMONY!" He walked around his desk and started to take a few of the weapons down off the wall. 

"Yes boss?" The blonde vampire stuck her head in to the office "You called?"

"I want you to find Wesley, and stay with him no matter what happens" He said without turning round "He is only to die over your dead body" 

"My dead...." She paused "Are you sure, boss?"

"Let me put it this way" He pulled a large, two handed broadsword off the wall and turned to face her "You either die by his side, or you die by mine" She stared at him, then nodded.

"Guarding Wesley - I'll get right on it" She turned and fled from the office, leaving Angel alone. 

Taking a deep breath, he strapped a katana across his back, then picked the broadsword up again. 

He walked over to the doors to reception, then paused.

"I was wondering if you would put in appearance" He said without looking round "Come to watch your master's handiwork?" 

"This isn't the doing of The Senior Partners, Angel" Eve said, walking up beside him "They have no more idea what caused this than you do" 

"You really expect me to believe that?" He turned to face her "War, death, pestilence - all we are missing is famine and we would have a full set" 

"The Senior Partners don't want to destroy the world, Angel - it is very hard to rule a world once it has been obliterated" She stared out in to the lobby "Whatever has happened was beyond their control" He gazed at her curiously.

"You are serious, aren't you - The Senior Partners really aren't responsible" He paused, then laughed.

"What's so funny?" She asked.

"I always thought that the world would end before I admitted that The Senior Partners and I had anything in common" He gestured to the lobby with his sword "Turns out I was only wrong by a few hours" She stared at him incredulously, but before she could respond, all four lifts made a pinging noise as they arrived.

"Head's up" He said quietly, and then the doors opened and hell poured out of them.

xoxox

"The Los Angeles branch fell within a matter of hours" Merlin continued "Every single person was slaughtered, and then the army moved on" He waved at the screen, and a picture of America came up "From the starting point at The Hellmouth...." A single red dot appeared ".....they spread further outwards....." The dot expanded until it engulfed California "....until....." He stopped speaking as the dot covered the whole of North America.

"The whole of North America, and parts of Central and South America are now a wasteland" Morgana explained "The few surivors that there are fight an endless battle just to stay alive" 

"And with America gone, the rest of the world is feeling the effects as well" Merlin finished "Markets have collapsed, the global economy is in total and complete meltdown. Nearly every country has declared martial law, and a fair number of them have collapsed in to civil war themselves" 

"Meanwhile, the vampire army is still spreading, and growing" Harry said "How long?" 

"Six months, maybe a year" Morgana said "After that, humanity will no longer be the dominant species on Earth. And after that....." She turned to the screen again.

xoxox

"FIRE!" John Watson yelled, and the line of artillery behind him fired off a series of incendiary rounds. As they landed, the the line of vampires attacking them burst in to flame, then exploded.

"YEAH!" He punched the air in triumph as the remaining vampires retreated slightly. 

"Sarge - how long do you think we can hold out?" One of the men in his command asked.

"As long as it takes the mages back there to finish their spells" John replied "If they are right, then it could be the start of our counter attack"

"And if they're wrong?" John laughed bitterly. 

"Then we won't be any worse off than we are now, will we?" He stared down the road again, then looked around in surprise as the Earth seemed to tilt slightly "What was that?"

"Earthquake?" One of his men suggested. 

"In Basingstoke?" John stared at him, then another huge tremor knocked them all off their feet. 

"Jesus!" John exclaimed "What the hell is going on?" 

"Sir....." A young woman was pointing down the street "I think you need to see this" John pushed himself up, then slowly got to his feet.

"See what, Carter?" He asked. 

"THAT!" She pointed down the street again, and John followed her finger. Then he looked up, and up, and up, and up. 

"Well..... okay" He sighed "Carter - can you tell the mages that we have another problem?"

"Yes, sir" She nodded and shot off in to the building behind them. 

"Everyone else......." He paused, then shrugged, still staring in disbelief at the six hundred foot tall man walking towards them "Smoke 'em if you got 'em" 

xoxox

"The old ones?" Dawn exclaimed in disbelief "Someone summoned The Old Ones?" 

"The last remnants of The ICW, along with a few other mages, thought that they could stop the spread of the vampires by summoning more powerful creatures to deal with them" Merlin said "They thought they were summoning some lesser demons - ones that could be easily controlled" He gestured to the screen "As you can see - they were wrong" The room fell silent for a few minutes, then Merlin took a deep breath.

"All of these events have two things in common" He said calmly "The army of vampires, the war, the return of the old ones - they all started when Buffy and Willow died at Sunnydale, and they all should not have happened" He looked around the room.

"History is screwed up - screwed up beyond the point of anything we have seen before" He paused "And now we have to fix it"


	3. Arising In Might

"Does everyone have their cloaks and their weapons" Walter asked as he surveyed the agents in front of him.

"Yes boss" They replied in unison, making him smile slightly.

"I realise I am being somewhat paranoid and controlling" He said with a self deprecating smile "And I know that my sister and I do not usually go in to the field, but as Merlin pointed out - unless we can work out what went wrong, and how to fix it - the world is going to end in three years, and those years will be very, very bloody" 

"We understand" Hermione said "And we are taking this seriously" Walter nodded.

"I know" He smiled, then he glanced at the piece of paper in his hand "Given what Harry and Sally saw, we can be mostly sure that whoever did this didn't come from the front of the school, so we are going to set up to cover the other three areas" He looked down again "Hermione, Luna - you are on the back of the school. If you set up around the basketball court area, you should have a fair view of the whole area"

"Yes, boss" They both nodded.

"Daria, Jane - the car park area on the west" They nodded as well "Finally my sister and I will be taking the football pitch side" Rilla smiled "If anyone sees anything, summon the rest of us, and we will come to you" He paused, then his face became serious "I don't want ANYONE doing this alone - whoever this is has some serious power, and I am not convinced that we are strong enough to face them alone, let alone stop them" 

"Yes, sir" Everyone responded in unison again.

"Very well - we leave in five minutes. Three doors, three areas" He looked over at his sister "Let the others know that we might need them, and that unless they know they are needed elsewhere, they should remain in The Conclave"

"Yes Walter" Rilla nodded, then walked out of the room. Walter looked at the others.

"See you in five minutes"

xoxox

Hermione and Luna emerged into the sunlight, then they both drew their tasers. 

"If Alex's maps are correct, the basketball court should be just over yonder" Hermione gestured to an area a little in front of them "The stands nearest the school should provide a good place to watch the back of the school from" 

"Okay" Luna nodded "Who do you think did this?" Hermione shrugged.

"I really have no clue" She admitted "The fact Alex and Dawn are back at The Conclave means that history must have changed - if they had died here, then they wouldn't be alive" She paused, then grinned "That made more sense in my head"

"I would imagine" Luna smiled "But I get what you mean" They reached the stands, and started to climb up the steps to the top. 

"So however it is must have come back and changed this point, or - at the very least - influenced someone to change this point" Hermione continued as they reached the top.

"The number of people who can travel in time is fairly limited" Luna pointed out "Us, The Last of The Time Lords.... that's pretty much it, as far as we know"

"The Department of Mysteries had a whole slew of time-turners" Hermione suggested "The lesser ones could only take you about half a day at most, but what if they developed more powerful ones? Ones that could take you back further?"

"It's possible, but what would The DOM have to gain by wiping out humanity?" Luna asked as they started setting up some equipment under temporal shields.

"Good question" Hermione said with a sigh. 

"We are assuming this was done on purpose" Luna continued "What if someone was playing around with time travel, and they accidentally caused this?" 

"You think that's possible?" Hermione asked "Because the idea of someone just playing around is fairly disturbing"

"Daddy heard about a project once - an experimental project set up in New Mexico" She paused "It was called.....>" She furrowed her brow "Project Quantum Leap! That was it!"

"That was what?" Hermione asked.

"The guy who founded it - Project Quantum Leap - was trying to find a way to travel through time to see the past" Luna continued excitedly "He said he wanted to see the little things - see what lead to the big moments in history" 

"Did he manage it?" 

"I don't know" Luna sighed "When the war came, Daddy redirected his efforts and he never mentioned it again" She paused "But what if he - the guy who founded it - managed to travel back in time....." She trailed off "What if that's it?"

"You think he could have done all this?" Hermione asked.

"What if he came back to see what lead to The Golden Age?" Luna said thoughtfully "To watch Willow imbue The Scythe with the magic of The Slayer?"

"And he interfered with it?" Hermione asked sceptically "I suppose it's possible" Luna grinned.

"But it's also possible this was done on purpose by someone who really wants the world to die" She nodded "I guess we'll find out" She looked over at the school "Did Walter mention anything about a time frame?"

xoxox

Daria and Jane walked out in to the sunshine, then looked around with their tasers drawn. 

"The car park is just an open yard, but according to Alex's maps there is a maintenance building about half way down" Daria said "If we can get access to the roof, we should be able to plant the cameras there"

"Then lets go amiga - I am curious to see what kind of big bad we are facing this time" Jane sped up a little, making Daria roll her eyes.

"Only you would be this excited about the end of the world" She said fondly. Jane laughed.

"I admit that in the overall scheme of things it is fairly bad, but be honest - a last heroic stand against an army of vampires. Doesn't that sound fun?"

"And these monsters? The Old Ones that Dawn referred to?" 

"Who wouldn't want to fight an army of six hundred foot tall gods?" Jane smiled "I think we could take them" Daria laughed.

"Really?" She asked "Would that be just you and me, or would we bring the rest of The Conclave in on it?"

"Oh I mean all of us" Jane grinned, then they stopped as they reached their destination and looked up at the maintenance building "So how are we supposed to climb up there?"

"Fear not, padawan - we have ways of achieving miracles" Daria walked round to the door, turned the handle, then cursed.

"Well so far I am very impressed" Jane smirked, making Daria glare at her.

"I am not done yet, love" She said. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, then took a step back.

"If you are thinking about using the power of your mind, amiga......" Jane started, then she stopped as Daria raised her right foot and kicked the door as hard as she could. The door flew open, and - opening her eyes - Daria looked at Jane. 

"You were saying?"

xoxox

"The bleachers should provide a suitable location to watch the school" Walter said as he and Rilla walked across the football field towards the school. He looked around, then shivered.

"Bad memories, brother of mine?" Rilla asked, and Walter nodded.

"You'd think after five hundred and twenty two years I wouldn't get freaked out by walking through muddy ground" He said softly "But I guess some things never leave you" 

"Will you be okay?" She looked at him with a concerned expression, but he waved his hand dismissively.

"I'll be fine" He said "I am only slightly freaked out, and the lack of shell-fire and screaming reminds me I'm not in the trenches any more - that the war is over, and that - aside from the forthcoming Armageddon - I am perfectly safe" He paused "That sounded better in my head"

"I would think so" Rilla smiled at him. 

"Anyway - after watching all the alternative futures, including the one we're looking in to now, I realise that as bad as The War was, it really wasn't the end of the world - not even close" He paused "Even if it was the end of my world, so to speak"

"Don't remind me" Rilla shivered "But times change all things - quite literally in some cases - and we are together now" She smiled "So who's doing this?" 

"Pardon me?" Walter stared at her in surprise. 

"You've never treated me as stupid before, brother of mine - I'd prefer it if you didn't start now" She said flatly "You, Merlin and Morgana have some idea what is going on - some idea of who came to Sunnydale and rewrote the whole of history" Walter smiled.

"I told them that you'd work it out" He said quietly "And I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I can't tell you at the moment" She stared at him for a moment, then smiled.

"Okay - but I'm going to want to know the truth at some point" 

"I know" He nodded "But for now, we have to watch the school, and find out how it was done and find the person who did it"

"Yes boss" Rilla nodded brightly "So - lets get to it!"

xoxox

"Jane - heads up" They had been outside Sunnydale High for half an hour when Daria spotted something that she was fairly sure shouldn't be there.

"What's up?" Jane had been looking over at the car park - making sure whoever was trying to wipe out humanity didn't sneak up behind them first.

"Alex's report - did it mention a guy in a dark mail suit with a mace?" Her partner shook her head "So who's that?" Jane looked in the direction Daria was pointing, then suddenly bounded over to stand next to her.

"Walter's not one for overly dramatic cosplay, is he?" Jane asked hopefully, then sighed "Yeah - I didn't think so" Daria pulled out her communicator.

"Agent Ingleside, Angel Caralon - we have a possible incursion at the west side of the building" She said quietly "Figure in dark chain mail, carrying a mace and looking remarkably out of place" She paused "Unless Agent Ingleside has taken to dressing up as a knight"

"I haven't" Walter's voice came back "Although at least now I know what I'll be doing for Halloween" He paused "Get hold of Arc-Angle and Eris and start to move in. Caralon and I will be there shortly"

"Yes boss" She replied.

"And for the love of god don't let Gemini and Capricorn see you - it's bad enough we have a nut job from a Ren Fair to deal with - we don't need our two newest agents thinking the six of us have gone rogue" 

"Yes boss" She flicked the radio off, then back on "Agent Arc-Angle, Agent Eris - we have an incursion, and Ingleside wants you round here"

"Running all the way" Hermione's voice came back almost at once, then the radio went dead. Daria dropped it in to her pocket, then looked over at Jane "Lets go - they'll meet us down there"

xoxox

Five minutes later, the six agents were stood in a loose semi-circle around the exit from the dining room. 

As they stood there, the wave of time energy that Harry and Hermione had reported suddenly rushed out towards them. 

"Brace yourselves" Walter yelled, then winced as the energy flowed over them "Everyone okay?"

"Yes boss" Everyone replied.

"Then brace yourselves again - whoever did this is probably going to be coming soon"

"What about the vampires?" Hermione asked.

"They're going to rush towards Gemini and Capricorn" Rilla said, not taking her eyes away from the door "And since we know they come back, I am not all that worried about them" 

"I'm sure they'll be happy to hear it" Hermione said, staring intently at the door "So - not to ask a really stupid question - what are we going to do when he comes out?" There were a few minutes of silence, then Walter laughed.

"I suppose we should probably discuss that before it happens, right?" He said, slightly sheepishly. 

"Might be wise, brother of mine" Rilla said with a soft laugh.

"Well - our main plan is to jump on him, subdue him and take him back to The conclave so we can find out what his problem is" Walter said quickly "Then maybe we can figure out how to undo the damage he's done and put the world to rights" 

"I think you will find that harder than you might think" A voice came from the door. 

xoxox

**Ten minutes earlier**

The figure walked into the shadow of the high school, and looked around. 

"Just as I remember" It thought, then it strode down the corridor towards the library area. Pausing at the entrance to the library, it let a smile cross its lips.

"And now - it begins" Raising the mace, The Figure walked in to the area - and everyone turned to look at them.

xoxox

Rupert Giles stared in surprise at the figure that strode out of the darkness and into the light. 

"Who are you?" He asked, then raised his sword as the figure laughed.

"You need to brush up on your history, Mr Giles" A distinctly feminine voice said, then in three quick steps she had crossed the space between them and brought the mace crashing down on his head, killing him in an instant.

"GILES!" Wood yelled, then raised her sword as the woman turned to face him.

"The school teacher" She said with a sneer "Tell me, Headmaster - what kind of a Principal lets his school be destroyed in less than a year?" She shook her head "Even Dumbledore managed to keep his around for six before Voldemort invaded"

"Wha...." Wood started, but a second later the figure threw her mace across the room, shattering his leg and causing him to collapse. A moment after that, she was standing over him.

"Be assured - your deaths will not be the last" 

xoxox

"Oh my goddess!" Willow exclaimed almost silently as the power of the old magic flowed through her. She poured it all in to the scythe, then looked up at her girlfriend.

"Take this....." Her mouth fell open "Kennedy!" 

"What, love?" The newly imbued Slayer smiled at her.

"HER!" Kennedy jumped to her feet, then felt a blinding flash of pain at the base of her spine. She collapsed on to her back, then she flinched as she saw the mace coming down towards her head.

Willow screamed, then raised her hands.

"INFLAMUS!" She yelled, shooting fire towards the woman.

"Naughty, naughty" The woman shook her head "Such powerful black magic - are you sure you want the potentials to gain that?"

"INLFARAMUS!" Willow shouted again, and the flames got bigger.

"And you are the most powerful white witch in a generation?" The figure threw back her head and laughed "Please" WIth an almost off-hand gesture, she swept the mace around, sending Willow crashing back through the window. 

"And now for the finishing touch" She looked down at the scythe, then - raising her mace - she shattered the legendary weapon in to a million pieces.

xoxox

Humming to herself, she strode back down the corridor towards the car park entrance, then stopped as she heard voices.

"Well - our main plan is to jump on him, subdue him and take him back to The conclave so we can find out what his problem is" A deep male voice said quickly "Then maybe we can figure out how to undo the damage he's done and put the world to rights" Grinning to herself - they really thought she was a man? - she flung the doors open.

"I think you will find that harder than you might think" She announced in a loud voice, then she turned the mace downwards, resting it on the grounds with her hand on the hilt.

"Stop right there!" The man who had spoken before called out, making her smile.

"I have stopped, Agent Ingleside" She said in a friendly tone "Look - I am not moving"

"How do you know my name?" Walter asked in surprise "Have we met?"

"I have certainly met all of you before..... and come to think of it, that would explain how you knew my name then" She said thoughtfully "I guess this is one of the inevitable side-effects of time travel" She took a step forward, then stopped as all six agents raised their tasers.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Luna yelled, a cry echoed by Daria and Rilla.

"I just wanted to introduce myself properly" The woman complained "You are no fun" She sighed "Anyway" She thrust her chest forward and threw her head back "I AM MORGORTH - LOOK UPON MY WORKS AND DESPAIR!" Walter stared at her for a moment, then took a step forward.

"Hello Morgoth - nice to meet you" He pointed the taser at her head "Now drop the mace, or....." As he was speaking, a flash of light engulfed the woman, and when it faded, she had vanished "....I will shoot...." He stared at the empty space in front of them, then turned to his colleagues "Okay - lets go home"


	4. From Before The Dawn Of Time

For the second time in as many days, the entirety of The Conclave was gathered in the conference room, waiting for Merlin to address them. 

A few minutes later, he walked in and - as they all fell silent, he turned to face them.

"The world is older than anyone knows, and contrary to popular myth, it did not being as a paradise" He said "The biblical myths of the creation are just that - myths" 

"I knew Mr O was crazy" Jane said quietly, making Daria smile.

"However, the theories on evolution were not exactly correct either" Merlin continued "While they are mostly true, the idea that we all descended from the same primordial ooze is entirely fallacious" He paused "Before the dawn of history, the world was ruled by demons" He noticed Dawn and Alex nodding "You've heard this before?"

"Giles was quite happy to lecture on the topic" Dawn smiled. 

"A man after my own heart" He smiled "Anyway - in this era - before man walked the earth - the planet was a battle ground between two planes of existence. Humans would call them Heaven and Hell, but that is just our way of perceiving them" 

"Heaven isn't real?" Harry asked in surprise. 

"That's more a matter of faith than science" Merlin replied "But both planes were ruled by beings of immense power" He paused "Which - I admit - is a phrase that gets overused a great deal, but this time I am, if anything, understating it" 

"Gods?" Dari asked.

"Or demons" Merlin nodded "They waged war against each other for uncounted eons, using earth as their battle ground - they turned the earth in to a living hell" 

"What changed?" 

"Like all dictatorships throughout history, the people caught in the middle of these two might powers eventually rose up and decided to stop them" Merlin said simply "The lesser angels and the lesser demons, along with all the lower beings on earth, rose up and overthrow their masters. They bound them to their dimensions, and then set about remaking the earth into a nicer, friendlier place" He paused "It didn't work out that way, but hey - points for trying" He took a long breath.

"To cut a long story short....."

"Too late" Hermione and Luna said in unison. 

"....a long time passed and eventually came The Twilight - the battle where the first strains of humanity fought the last remnants of the demons and angels and drove them off Earth forever" He glanced at Luna "I understand that one of your ancestors was there?" 

"So family history says" Luna nodded "It is something we are quite proud of"

"And so you should be" Merlin grinned "While The Twilight was not on the scale of the previous battles, it was the single most impressive act in history" He paused "Well - that and obliterating smallpox from the face of the earth, but that came a lot later" He shook his head.

"As I was saying - The Twilight was a truly epic war - one that lasted for generations. The final battle of this war was against a very powerful demon - a direct descendent of The Old Ones, and the last of their representatives on earth"

"Morgoth" Xena said. 

"Morgoth" Merlin nodded "But not the one that you saw today"

"You are sure?" Xena leaned forward "Because from what you've said, this one was very powerful"

"I am sure" Merlin nodded again "The battle against Morgoth lasted seven hundred years, but in the end he was killed so completely and so thoroughly that he wasn't just banished back to the Hell Plane, he was banished to the void between worlds, where he will spend the rest of eternity" He paused "And from everything we have been able to discover, Morgoth was undeniably and definitely male" 

"And the person we met today was decidedly not" Rilla sighed.

"To say the least" Merlin smiled wryly "According to what we have found, Morgoth was a Seraphim that rebelled against the Heavenly Plane and tried to raise an army from Hell - he almost succeeded, but the army of the lower beings rose against him and drove him out" 

"Yay" Alex said, then blushed when everyone stared at him.

"After The Twilight, the earliest version of humanity became the dominant species, but the aftermath of the war and the battles was that both angel and demon DNA was now intermixed with every species on earth" He paused "This all happened a billion years ago, and at that point evolution took over, but the simple fact is that every single being - every single creature - on the planet evolved from a mixing of the last of the angels and demons with the lower races" 

"Wow" Hermione leaned back in her seat "That's not something you find the history books"

"Not even Hogwarts: A History?" Harry asked with a smirk, making her stick her tongue out at him. 

"Although it isn't in the historical record, one of the DNA strains lead human beings to be able to do magic, while other traits show up from time to time - the truly evil men in history are generated by the coming together of long dormant bloodlines that should never have been mixed again" 

"Is that why most of the Dark Lords are purebloods?" Sally asked thoughtfully "With all the inbreeding, the bloodlines are more likely to combine than in other families?"

"Pretty much" Merlin nodded "And there is every possibility that the Morgoth we are dealing with now might well be - at the cellular level - the long descendent of Morgoth The Mighty" He paused "The truth is - we have no clue who this new threat is, There is no record of her anywhere in the timeline - neither up nor downstream - and from everything we have seen, she came out of nowhere and vanished back to nowhere" 

"Could she be the shadow?" Zoe asked "From Avonlea? And Sunnydale?"

"She could" Merlin shrugged "But she could also be entirely new and unrelated to all that" He sighed "I know - this isn't much to go on, but I thought that knowing the background of the name might prove useful" He paused as they all stared back at him blankly "Yeah - I wasn't entirely convinced of that either"

"Tolkien" Hermione said suddenly. 

"Bless you" Luna replied. 

"I mean - Tolkien wrote about Morgoth in The Silmarillion" Hermione continued "Is it possible that whoever this new woman is got it from there, rather than from the history?"

"It is entirely possible" Morgana said, walking from the back of the room to stand next to her husband "Although - as a point of interest - Tolkien's account of The War of Wrath is pretty much based on The Twilight. Also Paradise Lost and a few of the other epic stories about the creation of Lucifer and the battle between Heaven and Hell" She smiled "Even though it is lost to history, genetic memory is incredibly powerful and incredibly persistent" 

"So where does this leave us?" Rilla asked "Are we going to go back and stop this..... this Morgoth?"

"We don't have a choice" Merlin said "If we don't go back and prevent the changes from taking place, then everything that happened after that point will be changed" He looked around the table "Frank and Catherine Black are killed during a vampire raid in Seattle, along with their daughter Jordan. Jack Carter and his daughter die when Global Dynamics attempts to generate a sunlight bomb, and instead causes an atomic explosion" He continued to look round the table "Hogwarts is destroyed in less than an hour, and every single person is killed or turned. The rest of magical society falls soon after" 

"What about us?" Dawn asked.

"You survived the massacre in the school, but Sunnydale literally became the centre of hell on earth - you were killed less than a week later" Merlin turned to Daria and Jane "Lawndale fell a month after Los Angeles" 

"And us?" Amy asked.

"The Doctor broke pretty much every law of time and space to save you, but you never returned to earth again" He said sadly "In fact, the only lives that were not affected are the six of us who died before Sunnydale took place" He paused "But there is something more serious"

"More serious than all of our deaths and the end of humanity?" Jane asked in amusement. 

"My beloved is not suggesting that your deaths aren't serious, or that they weren't a tragedy" She said calmly "Nor is he suggesting that the holocaust to end all holocausts is not serious either" 

"So what is he saying?" Gabrielle asked.

"That the power that supports The Conclave is not infinite, and even as we speak it is being drained by the paradox that now exists" Walter said from his seat "Almost all of you here are now dead in the real world, and it is only The Conclave that is keeping you in existence" 

"But that takes its toll" Merlin continued "And before long, the power will be drained beyond our ability to replenish it"

"When that happens, then the words chaos and mayhem will not do the situation justice" Morgana said seriously "The state of temporal grace will come to an end, and one by one each of you will vanish" She looked at the agents who had pre-dated the massacre in Sunnydale "And because they will have never have come, then the rest of us will vanish as well - each one of you has had their life saved by one of them, and since they would not have been there to do that, your lives would not be saved"

"Temporal mechanics" Jane whispered under her breath. 

"And when we vanish, all the good we have done - all the times we have repaired history - will vanish along with us" Merlin paused "Although most of it has been pretty much destroyed already after Armageddon broke out, and everything we did change was to avert Armageddon so in the long run it probably won't change much" 

"Except all of us being dead" Morgana pointed out.

"Except that" He nodded "So - we have to go back to Sunnydale and stop Morgoth" He paused "While I would like all of your help, I should point out that whoever she is, Morgoth is very, very powerful and very dangerous, and will probably stop at nothing to get past us. So this is strictly a volunteer mission only. Anyone who goes has to do so that they go on the understanding that the completion of this mission is more important than their lives" He looked around "You have half an hour to decide" 

"We're going" Amy and Rory stood up.

"Ditto" Hermione, Luna, Sally and Harry followed suit. A moment later every other agent in the room had got to their feet. Morgana looked at her brother. 

"I told you" 

"Yes, yes - you're very smart" He rolled his eyes "Now - I take it that you are all doing this because you believe in the protection of the time lines and the importance of getting history back where it belongs?"

"Yes boss" They replied in unison.

"And the fact that if we don't fix this, you will all die anyway is just a co-incidence?"

"Yes boss" They replied again. 

"In which case, get ready to go in half an hour" He paused "I will tell you the details when we get there, but I wanted everyone armed with not only tasers, but with side arms as well" He smiled "When we go - we go in mob handed"

"We?" Jordan asked in surprise "You are coming with us, sir?"

"While the majority of you will be confronting Morgoth and preventing her from going in to the school, I am going to have to talk to the eight of you that are already there to ensure that you don't interfere with the new versions of you that will be in the area" He paused "Agent Arc-Angle - if you saw another version of yourself, telling you not to do something that you had been instructed to do by Walter, Rilla or me, what would you do?" Hermione gazed at him, then shrugged.

"I don't know" She admitted "I might think it was a trick, or possibly that I was going mental" 

"Now what if you saw me?" She smiled.

"I would probably do it without a second thought" She said "Because you never leave The Conclave, and if you are there then it must be for a very good reason"

"Which is why I am going with you" Merlin smiled "And since Morgana vowed never to let me out of her sight again after that incident in Pudding Lane, she is going to have to come with us as well" 

"Damn right" Morgana grinned. 

"So - everybody gear up. We go in half an hour"


	5. On The Mouth of Hell (II)

"Alright - is everyone ready to go?" Merlin looked around The Conclave garage at the agents assembled there. 

"Yes, sir" They replied in unison, making him roll his eyes. 

"Very well then - lets go" He turned around to face the wall, then raised his hand to summon the portal back to Sunnydale. 

xoxox

Five minutes later, they walked out of other side of the portal in to the Sunnydale sunshine. 

"We should be here about six hours in advance of the massacre" Merlin said, staring at the school "Buffy and her Slayers will be here in about five and a half hours, and Morgoth about twenty minutes after that" He looked around the area, then turned back to the group.

"You've got your assigned positions - if we are going to set up the temporal lock, we have to do it outside the area that you are going to come back to in a few hours" He paused "Merry - are you sure that Morgoth didn't just appear?"

"Yes" Daria nodded emphatically "My guess is she appeared a long way down the street and walked here" She paused "It would make sense - you'd have picked up any major temporal disturbances in the near area"

"True" Merlin smiled "Okay - we set the perimeter just outside the football field - that should cover the area we need to lock down" He looked at Morgana "Can you take care of that? I need to go find the others"

"Of course" She nodded, then looked back at the agents "Take your positions, and make sure that you aren't seen, and that you don't die" 

"Yes, m'am" Everyone replied, making her roll her eyes and Merlin burst in to laughter. 

"Shush you" She waved her hand at him.

"Yes, dear" He grinned, then turned and headed towards the school. 

xoxox

"Walter...." Rilla turned towards her brother "I think you should probably see this" 

"What is it?" He asked without turning round.

"It's Agent Snow" She said simply, then grinned as Walter span round, tripped and fell on his bottom. 

"Merlin? He's here?" He said, standing up again.

"Agents Ingleside, Caralon" Merlin strode up to them "As we speak, the whole of The Conclave is arranging a temporal lock around this entire area"

"Every agent?" Rilla asked in surprise. 

"Including you two and my sister" Merlin nodded "So if you see them - anyone other than the four agents that came back with you - don't interfere"

"Yes sir" They both nodded.

"Okay - I am going to talk to Merry, Longstocking, Arc-Angle and Eris" He started to walk off, but Walter called out to him "Yes?"

"You can't tell us what is going to happen?" Walter asked.

"I wish I could, but by the time I have talked to the others you won't even remember we had this conversation" Merlin smiled "Good day" 

xoxox

"Luna?" 

"Yes, Hermione?"

"Did we just talk to Merlin?" 

"Of course not....." Luna trailed off, then she shook her head, trying to clear it "I can remember talking to him, but not that he was actually here" 

"What did he say?" Hermione asked.

"That the whole of The Conclave has come forth to set up a temporal lock and that if we see them we shouldn't interfere with it" Luna replied promptly, then her eyes went wide "Woah - that's freaky"

"Tell me about it" Hermione nodded "That's word for word what I remember as well" She paused "Do you think that it's possible that the man who introduced magic to our world might just have the ability to cast a spell on us without knowing?"

xoxox

"Agent Snow - are you going to cast a spell to wipe a part of our memories?" Daria asked quietly. 

"What makes you say that, Agent Merry?" Merlin asked interestedly. 

"Because......" Daria scrunched up her eyes "Because you didn't look like you expected us to see you" She said opening her eyes "So clearly we don't return to The Conclave and tell you that we saw you here - if we had, then you would have expected us to be expecting you" Merlin stared at her in slight bemusement. 

"Every time I think I have figured you out, you manage to surprise me" He said after a few moments "And yes - I am going to have to obliviate some of your memories to avoid you returning to The Conclave and telling me what my future entails" 

"And by the same token you can't tell us what our future entails?" She asked hopefully. 

"I can tell you one thing" He said with a grin. 

"What's that?"

"That in about three minutes, you aren't going to remember asking that question" She rolled her eyes, making him laugh. 

xoxox

Merlin walked away from the pizza place with a concerned look on his face. Despite being the most powerful mage in the history of time, when it came to casting spells on Harry, he was never entirely certain if they worked.

Of course - when Harry and Sally had returned from their mission, they hadn't said anything about meeting Merlin in the past, so either the spell had worked, or their two newest agents new enough not to talk about strange events.

"Honey?" Morgana called out "Are the past agents warned?"

"Yes" He nodded "How are we doing on the temporal lock down?"

"Triple A is about to set the process off" Morgana smiled "We should get outside the perimeter before she finishes it, otherwise we'll be stuck inside until the whole thing is over"

"Wouldn't want that" Merlin smiled, then he took her hand and they walked towards the back of the football pitch. 

xoxox

"Everyone ready?" Hermione said, then heard a wave of responses in her earpiece "Okay then. Three. Two. One. GO" As she finished, a flare of light flashed round the high school, creating a forcefield nearly a mile high. 

Hermione stared at the pad in front of her, then smiled.

"Well done everyone - the lock is in place. No one who doesn't belong in this time period can get in to the area surrounding the high school" She looked over as Merlin and Morgana walked up behind her. 

"Everything is arranged, sir, m'am" She said formally "The forcefield should last for the next two hours or so - once we get past the time the massacre takes place, it will collapse automatically, otherwise the rest of our agents - including us - will be stuck there.... here" She shook her head "This could get really confusing after a while"

"To say the least" Morgana smiled, then looked at her husband "Time for phase two?" 

"Time for phase two" He nodded.

xoxox

There was a flash of light, and as it faded Morgoth found herself stood at the junction of Maple and Vine, around ten minutes away from the school.

"Not bad" She glanced at the device on her arm "At least it was better than the last time - stupid damn dispersal field" She shook her head "Time to go - time to see if I can get their attention"

xoxox

"Heads up" Xena shouted, pointing down the street. The agents had fanned out to watch every possible avenue of approach that Morgoth could use, and - after fifteen minutes - Xena had spotted a figure in black walking down the street. 

"Okay - four lines, Ares, Aphrodite with us" Merlin strode forward, Morgana by his side. Gabrielle and Xena moved up to join them, while the rest of the agents fell in to formation where they were.

xoxox

"Ah - there they are" Morgoth smiled inside her helmet as she saw The Conclave a little further down the street "Standard Greek Battle Formation - so predictable" She raised her mace, then came to a halt - planting her feet about one foot apart.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" The lead figure shouted, and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

"I have stopped" She called out, gesturing to her feet.

"Put down your weapon" He continued in a slightly quieter voice "And surrender yourself to us"

"Why in the cosmos would I want to do that?" She called back "And who are you, exactly?"

"My name is Merlin, and we know what you are about to do" He replied "Whether it is your intent or not, your actions are going to bring about the end of the world as we know it, and we can not let you do that"

"Do you really think you'll be able to stop me?" She asked curiously.

"If we have to" He said, his voice becoming firm "And believe me when I say that -while we have no wish to hurt you - we won't hesitate"

"You sound serious" She said casually "But you also look like you are what - three hundred years old? Do you really think you are any match for me?" She swung the mace up to rest on her shoulder.

"I will grant you I am old, but I am not without some power" He raised his right hand, and a moment later a fireball appeared, floating in place above it.

"Impressive" She said with a nod, then looked past him "And I can see what - six more mages and eight warriors" She looked at him again "Perhaps I am over matched" She slowly lowered the mace to rest on the ground "So - I don't suppose you would just let me walk away?"

"How do we know if we let you go now, you won't come back and to this again?" Morgana asked. 

"Pinky swear?" Morgoth suggested, then laughed "I didn't think you'd agree" She shrugged "You don't know I won't, be you obviously knew enough to stop me in advance, so you can just do that the next time?"

"We have better things to do than keep running around after you" Xena said in annoyed tone.

"I would hope so - the vaunted Conclave probably have a great deal of meddling to do" Her tone turned nasty "Idle kings who dole unequal laws to a savage race, yet never stopping to wonder if just because they can, they should" She slammed the mace in to the ground, cracking the road beneath it "If you are what it takes to save the world, maybe it would better it were destroyed"

"That is not up to you" Merlin replied calmly "Now - are you going to come quietly, or do we have to do this the hard way?"

"Oh trust me - this will be very easy" She said, her voice still bitter "But probably not in the way you hoped" She swung her mace up, sending out a huge burst of flame from the end of it. As the four agents jumped back, she turned on the spot and vanished.

xoxox

Merlin stared at the spot that Morgoth had vanished from, then sighed.

"Lets get the hell out of here"

xoxox

_"Oh.... my..... goddess....." Willow exhaled as she felt the magic flow through her. As the spell completed, she looked up to see that her girlfriend was - quite literally - glowing._

_"Take this to Buffy" She said, handing the scythe to Kennedy. The newly empowered Slayer bounded to her feet, took the legendary weapon and dashed out of the door._

_Willow watched her go, then fell flat on her back._

_"That was neat!"_

Walter flicked off the projector, then turned to face the conference room.

"From everything we can tell, time has reset itself" He said in a relaxed tone "The Hellmouth was destroyed, and - while it is not good - only those who died in the fight the first time died this time" 

"Anya?" Alex asked, and Walter nodded "Well - she died doing what she loved" Dawn looked at him curiously "Hitting things with blunt objects"

"Ah"

"Anyway - Morgoth seems to have abandoned her quest to end the world - at least via the medium of Sunnydale" Walter smiled "No doubt we will meet her again - especially since she seemed to know who we are already" He looked around "For now, we just go back to doing what we are doing, and we'll deal with the future when it comes" He waved his hands "Dismissed"

xoxox

Amy looked up as Rory walked in to their quarters, a pensive expression on her face.

"Love? What's wrong?" He asked.

"I've got something to tell you - something that's going to change everything"


End file.
